Timeline 1900 – 2018

1983 - 1996British Social Attitudes Survey

Between 1983 and 1996 a question set in the British Social Attitudes Survey asked: ‘Do you think that most white people in Britain would mind or not mind if one of their close relatives were to marry a person of black or West Indian/Asian origin…. And you personally? These questions were asked repeatedly over a 13 year run of data (1983-1996). Though such questions would now be regarded as offensive, they show a marked decline in opposition over the period under examination, particularly in the 1990s. Hostility to inter-marriage falls rapidly amongst cohorts born after the 1930s, these cohorts expressing progressively more tolerant attitudes (opposition declines from over 60% in the oldest cohorts to under 20% in the youngest cohorts).